"So who's Bill?" asked Red.
"Bill is a Pokémon Researcher who is trying to make a Pokémon storage system. He's almost ready to go official, but he called me last night to ask for my help, since I am a techie. Apparently it's been giving him fits," said Cinna.
Cinna was the one to install Red's homepage. She had been hanging around the researchers for so long that she picked up quite a bit.
"So where is he?" asked Red.
Cinna had taken them straight to Bill's house, but no one was home.
"Hang on... Let's see. Here it is! Seems he must have accidentally hit the auto-timer. He might have merged with one of the Pokémon he was working with."
"My sister, child genii," muttered Red.
"Red, I am not a child genii. Maybe if you had hung around Researchers for years like I have instead of goofing around in school you would know stuff like this too!"
Cinna had gone to the same school as her brother, but unlike him managed to test out by the time she was six. It was why she had snuck onto Oak's forays out with other professors. And why her mother had allowed it once she figured out that Cinnamon wanted to join them. As a result she was smarter than her brother, because she took her studies seriously.
"Bill? Bill! Where are you!" shouted Cinna.
"OVER HERE!"
Cinna raced to where the voice was. She looked around until she found an oddly shaped Pokémon.
"Oh Bill...Oak must have told you that I was coming, so why didn't you wait?" said Cinna exasperated.
"Aw shucks, I wanted to show you somethin' impressive before you got here," said Bill.
"Bill...the mere fact you're this far along would have been impressive enough for me," said Cinna. She liked Bill, because he always took time to explain things to her when she first started hanging around Professor Oak. He liked having a little kid asking him intelligent questions. She picked up the odd looking Rattata and was about to head back to the cottage when a Fearow appeared.
"ACK! HELP!" yelped Bill.
"Red, hurry up!" shouted Cinna.
She took a different route, looking for any high ground so she could have her Dragonair (Ryusuke evolved during the fight with Seaking) grab him.
She could hear Bill squawk from where Fearow had him, as Red tried and failed to bring it down. Finally she reached a rocky outcropping and tossed a Pokéball at the Fearow. Bill was dropped with a shout, as a Pokéball could only hold one at a time and it had hit Fearow instead of him. Red managed to catch him before he fell to the ground.
Half an hour later...
"Much better!" said Bill, finally back in his human body.
"So what was it like to be a Rattata?"
"A unique experience, that's fer sure! Hey Cinna, think you could look at this here transporter for a minute?"
"I already did. There's a minor short in one of the wires. I'll replace it for you and then double check your calculations. Hmm, seems there was a minor one here too. Try this one Bill," said Cinna, as she scribbled a quick calculation on a piece of paper.
"Hmm...that works much better! Knew I could count on you Cinna!" said Bill.
"Are you sure you're not a child genius?" asked Red irritated. This always happened around Cinna. Always.
"Red, for the last time I am not a child genius."
"Actually you are a minor child genius. It's just that we never talked about it whenever you were around," said Bill absentmindedly as he applied Cinna's correction.
"Huh?"
"Very few kids at your age would have been able to keep up with us, let alone be able to spot an error as fast as you did. It's why your mother agreed to let you join us on our little expeditions. From what I can tell your brother is the same, only his mind is more in tune with battling and Pokémon as opposed to technology and science like you," said Bill.
"Come to think of it, I did notice he had a rather odd ability to pick the best strategy even with a type disadvantage. Remember Brock? You beat a rock/ground type with a fresh caught Pikachu," said Cinna.
"Yeah so?"
"Most people wouldn't have been able to do something like that."
"Delia told us not to mention it so you would think it was normal and not get an ego. Same with you Red."
"Yeah, I've met a few other child genii before, and they weren't exactly pleasant to be around," said Cinna with a grimace.
On occasion she ran into other genius children, usually the son or daughter of a noted scientist working with Oak. They always seemed to snub her because she acted like a normal girl, but when she worked rings around them that tended to shut them up. Frankly Oak and the others were glad she never pretended she was better than everyone because she knew more about Pokémon science and technology than other children her age.
Once the system worked properly, Red quickly sent most of his Pokéballs to Oak. He was starting to get bogged down with how many he had.
Cinna considered sending some of hers, but in the end just sent the Seaking home. It refused to listen to her, and there was very little water between the cottage and Vermillion.
"Where to next sis?" asked Red. He was slightly happier knowing he was smarter than his sister in his own way. Sure, she was popular and had adult friends who were all famous, but she wasn't half the battler he was, and he accepted that.
"Vermillion. But I want you to keep your eye out for anything strange, because we heard reports that the Gym Leader has been up to no good," said Cinna.
"From who? And who is this 'we'?"
"There's a collection of trainers and researchers who love Pokémon who keep an eye out for anything that might hurt them. Blue mentioned Lt. Surge might be part of a criminal organization and gave me a heads up."
"When did you run into Blue?"
"Before I went fishing and ended up fighting that Seaking," deadpanned Cinna.
"So what's this group called?"
"We don't have a name just yet, but there's a good number of us."
Actually they did have a name, it was just no one told her that it was jokingly called the Cinnamon Fan Club. All the members of the group had one thing in common. They were drawn to Cinnamon after a chance encounter or prolonged exposure. Blue was considered her second in command.
"How do you join this club?" asked Red.
"You can ask Blue. He said was going to Lavender Town to investigate something he heard. Apparently there have been reports of ghosts in the Tower, which is where the Pokémon have been buried."
"Should we split up then?" asked Red.
Cinnamon considered this.
"Call me if anything happens. And I mean anything!" said Cinna.
"I'll text you sis," said Red. The two split off and went separate directions.
Cinna headed for Lavender Town while Red went to Vermillion City.
"Excuse me sir, but have you seen a boy with a blue shirt and a necklace with an odd green stone?" asked Cinna.
"Sorry, we haven't seen anyone like that," said the old man.
"Darn. I know he came through this way."
"Excuse me, miss? Would your name happen to be Cinnamon?" asked a young girl.
"Yeah, how did you know?"
"A boy with a green necklace asked my brother and me to keep an eye out for a girl in black and yellow with a gray scarf on her head named Cinnamon. He said that he was going into the tower...but we haven't seen him for a week," said the little girl.
"Thank you little one! What's your name?"
"My name is Terra, after the mountains. My brother is Aqua cause of the river."
"Well Terra, why don't you and your brother go have an ice cream on me?" said Cinnamon, handing over some Pokédollars. The little girl beamed at her and went off to find her brother.
Cinnamon went to the Pokémon Center with her team...she would need a fully healed team and a plan. No way was she going into the tower unprepared.
A few hours later, Cinna went into the tower. She had a special talisman from a nice old lady that would hopefully keep the ghosts from trying to possess her. All of her shields were up as well.
Psychics were notably easy to possess, which was why they didn't particularly like ghost types. Though Cinna had heard half the time it was because the idiots forgot to maintain their shields.
She went up slowly, keeping an eye out for any ghosts.
Suddenly she noticed a shape in the fog.
"Blue?"
There was a burst of flames, and she jumped out of the way.
There in the fog was Blue and his Charmeleon.
"What the hell Blue?" she shouted.
Then she got a good look in his eyes. They were glazed over, and the only thing she could think of that would cause that was possession.
'Can't use my powers, I might hurt Blue...but I do know one thing that might wake him up, if what Red said was right!'
Cinnamon managed to walk through the haze, unconcerned by the Ghastly's attempts to scare her. Finally she managed to get behind Blue...and when he turned around she kissed him!
Her natural psychic powers took effect, and by the time Blue realized what was happening, he was blushing like mad!
"Cinna, what...?"
"Ryusuke, corral that Ghastly so I can catch it!" said Cinna.
The wind came from all directions, forcing the gassing Pokémon into the center, where Cinnamon caught it. Charmeleon went back to normal once Ghastly was taken care of.
"What happened?"
"Someone told me you went in here alone. I came to make sure you were alright, since I hadn't heard from you about the situation in Lavender Town."
"And that...?" asked Blue, blushing at the memory.
"Bonus."
"What has the group said about the situation in Vermillion?" he asked, changing the subject.
"I heard from Red shortly after I made it into town. Surge was behind a Pokémon theft ring, and they managed to recover all of them...though Surge went missing during the battle. Last time Red checked in he was going to try the Pokéalthalon."
"Figures. He does know that a Snorlax was last spotted in the area right?"
"How much you want to bet that he'll end up blowing his prize money feeding it?" snickered Cinna.
"Let's go. I was in the middle of going to the top when I ran into someone."
"Let me guess...Koga, right?"
"How did you...?"
"I heard something above me and looked up with my mirror. Sometimes it's a good thing to carry a compact. If it hadn't been for the fact he was being carried by his Golbat, I wouldn't have known who it was," said Cinnamon with a shrug.
"Why is it that you act more mature than your brother?"
"Girls mature faster than guys. And it seems Red is a genius in his own right...according to Bill he's a battle and Pokémon type."
"Whereas you are a research and science type. The only difference is that while you have good instincts when it comes to battling, your brother has the better experience."
They went up to the top, and it was only Blue's intervention that kept Cinna from being turned into mush.
The second she heard Koga's cruelty towards the dead Pokémon, she snapped.
"You did all of this, disrespected the dead...just as a test?!" she shrieked. Blue paled and immediately went behind her after recalling his Pokémon. The last time Cinna snapped like this, it hadn't been pretty and he had only been spared by an old tree that had blocked the weird power she had.
Sure enough, waves of some strange power rose off Cinna, causing her black hair to rise like a demon. The ghost Pokémon were both drawn to this power...and repelled by it. It was so strong that they could literally feed off of it, and some of them evolved.
The lone Arbok started to back away, feeling her rage in the air.
Suddenly it exploded from her, breaking one of the walls...right to where Koga was.
His shock was clear on his face.
He ran off quickly before her rage knocked him out of the sky.
Elsewhere near Lavender Town...
"Oh man, my head... Cinna must be really mad," said Red. He always got massive headaches when his sister really used her powers. The last time she exploded he had a migraine for four hours straight.
Red started running towards the town, remembering how last time this happened his sister had apparently passed out almost immediately afterwords. Blue had been the one to bring her to the grown-ups last time too.
The second he saw the tower, he ran towards it.
"Sis!"
"Help me you idiot! She overused her ability again!" said Blue with a snappish tone. Last time it hadn't been fun carrying her either. Red immediately went to his sister and bent down.
"Here, put her on my back. I've carried her after a black out before," said Red.
It took a little doing, but he managed to get her in a comfortable position while they went to the Pokémon Center.
"What happened?" asked Joy in concern.
"Sis overdid it again," said Red.
"Cinna is a psychic and I think being around all those ghosts overwhelmed her," said Blue.
"We have an open room," said Nurse Joy.
The next morning Cinna woke up, her head killing her.
"Ow...anyone got an aspirin?"
"Sis!"
"Red?"
"Morning sleeping beauty," said Blue.
"Blue? How long was I out?"
"You've been asleep all night. What happened?" asked Red.
"Koga really ticked me off. He desecrated those graves just to test something, and I got so mad that I exploded."
"Like the time with that trainer who laughed when you all but demanded that he at least treat his Pokémon with respect. I heard he's terrified of psychics now," said Blue.
"This coming from the smart mouth who hid behind the first tree he could find?" said Cinna.
Red looked at Blue.
"Cinnamon's temper is legendary among researchers. No way was I going to stay out in the open when that combined with her natural psychic powers," said Blue flatly.
"Smart," said Red.
"I wouldn't talk if I were you Red. What about the floating lamp that you broke?" said Cinna.
"I fixed that if you recall!" said Red hotly.
The closer he got to puberty, the stronger his own powers got. It was just that Cinna naturally absorbed his stray powers from him. The longer they were separate, the more they manifested around him. At least he did basic meditation exercises.
"Need...caffeine..." said Cinna. Blue handed her a cup of tea. Her little issue of waking up in the mornings after using her power was also known to him, so he had a cup ready.
Once she had drank that, she looked at Blue.
"What happened to Koga?"
"He ran with his tail between his legs."
"Sis, you tend to scare people away from Psychics," said Red.